According to the International Ice Hockey Federation website, Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames led the United States in scoring on Friday in a 6-1 victory over Belarus on the opening day of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Men's Hockey Championship in Minsk, Belarus. Gaudreau, a left winger from Carney's Point, New Jersey, led the United States in points with three as he notched a goal and two assists.

Gaudreau scored at 15:55 of the second period from Jeff Petry of the Edmonton Oilers to put the United States up 3-0 at the time. Gaudreau also assisted on a third period power play goal by Jacob Trouba of the Winnipeg Jets that put the United States up 5-1 at 14:58 and a third period power play goal by Jake Gardiner of the Toronto Maple Leafs that put the United States up 6-1 at 16:57.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Mikael Backlund of the Calgary Flames scored twice in a 3-0 victory over Denmark. Backlund opened the scoring and registered the game winning goal at 11:41 of the first period from Mattias Ekholm of the Nashville Predators. Backlund then scored an insurance marker with 37 seconds left in the first period from Tim Erixon of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Joakim Lindstrom.

With the wins, the United States and Sweden are 1-0 respectively. The United States' next game is against Switzerland at 11:45 a.m. mountain time on Saturday, while Sweden's next game is against the Czech Republic at 11:45 a.m. mountain time on Sunday.

There have been two major upsets to date. On Friday, France defeated Canada 3-2 thanks to spectacular goaltending by former NHL goaltender Cristobal Huet and then on Saturday, Latvia shocked Finland 3-2.

Canada meanwhile has Sean Monahan of the Calgary Flames on their roster and two defensemen who are from the Calgary region. Braydon Coburn of the Philadelphia Flyers was born in Calgary and Tyler Myers of the Buffalo Sabres was raised in Calgary.